Where else but the Los Angeles Westside could an 18-year incumbent congressman--a nationally esteemed authority on health and environmental issues--walk into the heart of his district and get assailed for his stand on dietary supplements and herbal remedies? Such was the case Tuesday night as Democrat Henry Waxman, running for reelection in the 29th District, debated two of his challengers, Republican Mark Robbins and independent David Davis.

Gil Clancy Boxing trainer Gil Clancy, 88, a boxing trainer who helped lead Emile Griffith to welterweight and middleweight titles, died Thursday at an assisted-living facility on Long Island, N.Y., his family said. Born in Rockaway Beach, N.Y., in 1922, Clancy boxed in the Army during World War II. After his discharge he studied physical education at New York University, earning a master's degree in teaching and paying tuition by training fighters. Eventually, he rose to prominence as a corner man. Clancy also worked with Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Oscar De La Hoya.

If you have ever wondered what goes through a kicker's mind as he sets up for a field-goal attempt--three paces back, three to the side, lean forward and pause--here is the answer. At least in one case. Big first step. That short phrase helps USC kicker David Davis block out the pressure, the distractions, the crowd noise. It is a mental note that launches him into his motion with the proper technique and rhythm. It is also an apt description for his performance against Oregon last week.

November 30, 2003 | Theodore K. Rabb, Theodore K. Rabb is the author of "Renaissance Lives: Portraits of an Age."

Among the Old Masters, none is more immediately recognizable than El Greco. We may think we can spot a Rembrandt, but Dutch scholars have lately told us we're mistaken. Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Poussin, Vermeer, Rubens -- the names evoke vivid images, ways of painting unique to each artist, yet all had contemporaries or imitators only the specialist can set apart. It is true that problems of attribution can arise with respect to El Greco.

USC had a field day against California on Saturday. So did kicker David Davis. Davis not only kicked two field goals and seven extra points in the Trojans' 55-14 victory, he also ran for a touchdown on a fake field-goal attempt in the third quarter. "I hadn't scored a touchdown since high school," said the transfer from El Camino College who was a wide receiver and kicker at Bishop Montgomery High in Torrance. "That was pretty neat." Davis is having a pretty neat season.

Zoogz Rift Punk rock musician Zoogz Rift, 57, a punk rock musician whose experimental style garnered comparisons with Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, died March 22 at Encino Hospital of complications from diabetes, said his partner, Laura Rift. Rift's music "both challenges and irritates, insults and amuses," Jeff Spurrier wrote in The Times in 1985. "His songs are musical mud pies lobbed at the mainstream market, fragmentation earbombs set in often bizarre meters with arrangements that both soothe and sear.

October 26, 2003 | David Davis, David Davis last wrote for the magazine about cowboy singer and actor Herb Jeffries.

Standing on a concrete island in downtown San Fancisco, David Oaks yells into a bullhorn the climactic line from the film "Network": "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore." The line would be a cliche if it weren't for one thing: Oaks means to be taken literally. On this sunny day, as thousands of mental-health professionals stream into the air-conditioned cool of the Moscone Center for the 156th annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Assn.

November 30, 2003 | Theodore K. Rabb, Theodore K. Rabb is the author of "Renaissance Lives: Portraits of an Age."

Among the Old Masters, none is more immediately recognizable than El Greco. We may think we can spot a Rembrandt, but Dutch scholars have lately told us we're mistaken. Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Poussin, Vermeer, Rubens -- the names evoke vivid images, ways of painting unique to each artist, yet all had contemporaries or imitators only the specialist can set apart. It is true that problems of attribution can arise with respect to El Greco.

Barber-neat hedges buffer the Valley Hunt Club from the world hurrying by on Orange Grove Boulevard, the busy Pasadena street known as Millionaire's Row before condos began displacing its deep-lawn mansions. No signs bordering the Valley Hunt grounds identify it by name. But staked beneath the hedges are discreet markers that label the property private.

William Nesler stood in a cramped courtroom Monday, a dozen years after his mother gunned down a man accused of molesting him, and admitted no remorse for taking the law into his own hands by murdering a man in a dispute over tools. Nesler, who had just been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for stomping David Davis to death last summer, told Judge Eric L. Du Temple that "I've done bad things" but that he had been "railroaded" by the criminal justice system.

October 26, 2003 | David Davis, David Davis last wrote for the magazine about cowboy singer and actor Herb Jeffries.

Standing on a concrete island in downtown San Fancisco, David Oaks yells into a bullhorn the climactic line from the film "Network": "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore." The line would be a cliche if it weren't for one thing: Oaks means to be taken literally. On this sunny day, as thousands of mental-health professionals stream into the air-conditioned cool of the Moscone Center for the 156th annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Assn.

USC had a field day against California on Saturday. So did kicker David Davis. Davis not only kicked two field goals and seven extra points in the Trojans' 55-14 victory, he also ran for a touchdown on a fake field-goal attempt in the third quarter. "I hadn't scored a touchdown since high school," said the transfer from El Camino College who was a wide receiver and kicker at Bishop Montgomery High in Torrance. "That was pretty neat." Davis is having a pretty neat season.

If you have ever wondered what goes through a kicker's mind as he sets up for a field-goal attempt--three paces back, three to the side, lean forward and pause--here is the answer. At least in one case. Big first step. That short phrase helps USC kicker David Davis block out the pressure, the distractions, the crowd noise. It is a mental note that launches him into his motion with the proper technique and rhythm. It is also an apt description for his performance against Oregon last week.

Where else but the Los Angeles Westside could an 18-year incumbent congressman--a nationally esteemed authority on health and environmental issues--walk into the heart of his district and get assailed for his stand on dietary supplements and herbal remedies? Such was the case Tuesday night as Democrat Henry Waxman, running for reelection in the 29th District, debated two of his challengers, Republican Mark Robbins and independent David Davis.

ON an old studio lot outside London, a production crew began work on the movie "Sahara" in November 2003 by staging the crash of a vintage airplane. But when the film opened in theaters in April 2005, the sequence had been deleted. "In the context of the movie, it didn't work," said director Breck Eisner. The cost of the 46-second clip: more than $2 million. This kind of spending, according to accounting records, helped turn "Sahara" into one of the biggest financial flops in Hollywood history.